Star Saber was successful…among the hardcore fans willing to sit on almost $200 for a year. The most iconic character from Victory needed a crowdfunded campaign to get into production. “Wild success” is relative

Minerva was only done because an Elita-1 was able to be milked out of that mold, convincingly. Skullgrin, Doubledealer, and all the other Masterforce Decepticons had pretender counterparts in American markets. The sole exception is Overlord, who at that point had become a big antagonist in IDW’s Wreckers series. Black Zarak would’ve never been done had there not been Earthrise Scorponok. Ginrai/God Ginrai would just be released as Powermaster Optimus Prime (because there’s no way in hell Hasbro would market that figure as anything else in an English speaking market)

Look at the MPG project. No way would Hasbro be able to release six bullet train Transformers at retail. So they made some available through Hasbro Pulse, which is specifically targeted as a collectors’ website. Same with Star Convoy, Super Megatron, God Neptune, and King Poseidon. It’s not that American fans don’t want Japan-only characters. It’s that the American fans who do want/know them are in the collector demographic, rather than the general public. Enter Hasbro Pulse

Cybertron Metroplex did get English media presence through the fun of Galaxy Force/Cybertron. Japan G1 got awful English dubs that have been shoved deep in the Transformers closet of shame.

 

We did but also not everyone was able to get the ER Prowl.

 

I think the listing here that has me the most curious is actually core class Skar. This could be so many different things:

1. Doubledealer's Powermaster, as a pretool for a new Ratbat. While this is possible, it seems somewhat unlikely. We just got a new Ratbat back in Siege and he already got a Skar repaint. While a new Ratbat would be believable since there's going to be a core figure of his boxmate Rumble in SS86, making a random Skar as the pretool with no Doubledealer alongside it is completely out of left field. Skar also doesn't seem like the type of character to warrant a new figure every couple years. Even if he shared a mold with Ratbat back in the WFC trilogy, I would guess a new Wingthing would be a more likely pretool than Skar, because at the very least we got a Soundwave recently.

2. An opportunistic repaint of Bomb-Burst. Two core class bat guys coming out around the same time? Seems a little suspicious. It's possible the new Skar could be upgraded from being a simple Powermaster into a small mercenary in his own right. And what else are you gonna do with the Bomb Burst mold? Still, while the reimagining is fun I wouldn't put much stock into this one. Skar still doesn't fit the mold accurately in any way, and repainting Bomb Burst into an even more obscure guy seems unlikely.

3. A renamed Slash. I've seen it brought up that there's a TMNT character named Slash, and that Hasbro may have lost those toy rights. While this one is conceivable, I feel like "Dinobot Slash" is the most likely solution to that problem.

4. A new Dinobot. The most exciting option. In IDW the Dinobots had a medic named Skar who didn't last very long. As far as I'm aware it wasn't made clear what his alt mode would have been, but I've seen some people mentioning an ankylosaurus. An ankylosaurus is a good choice for a dinobot alt mode, but it would be a bummer to have the first-ever toy of a new dinobot be stuck in the smaller-scaled core class. Unless he was a gastonia or an animantarx, which are less well-known smaller ankylosaurs. We got a dracodon alt mode last year, clearly someone at Hasbro likes weird dinosaurs.

Just going off the trend in these listings, I'm guessing the new Skar will be some kind of dinobot. Or it could be a placeholder name for something else. What do you guys think?

 

I'm curious if the Junkions are a codename for something we haven't seen yet, sort of like how Energon Monster was used for the Pretenders

 

A slight redeco of the ER Prowl makes more sense for SS86 then a repack in Legacy (which this is not since it doesn't say PR) or a brand new figure since there is literally nothing they can do to improve on the ER mold with the same exact budget. Also although the ER two pack was an Amazon exclusive it was still much easier to get than most, and didn't disappear in shipping for most people like ER Ratchet.

 

Grandus appeared in Animated.

 

Maybe but at the same time I’d prefer SS to not be overflown with a lot of SS86 stuff either way I’m fine if it’s TFA or G1 idc as long as it’s one of those two. Tho I would prefer TFA.

 

  Superb!

I really need to watch that show, the movie was so funny!

~L~

 

I mean what else can they put into Studio Series now? From Bayverse they pretty much did all of the first 3 films which are the most well liked and are now having to do the last 2 which are the most disliked. They are getting into the background characters with 2 minutes of screen time now from those film. Then there is RotB which from the cast list only has 12 bots in the film. The next live action film won't be until at least 2025 at the earliest so they have to include SS86 stuff to help keep Studio Series going. Plus it is not like they haven't repacked WfC figures into Studio Series 86 with slightly different decos before. ER Cliffjumber was redecoed as a duo of Buzzworthy Bumblebee and SS86 lines and Coronation Starscream is just ER Starscream slightly retooled with extra accessories. A SS86 redeco Prowl is so much more likely than a new datsun mold.

 

Nemesis Leo damn well better be Galva Lio colors. I wanna make my Vehicon Apocalypse already.

 

You should it's great.

The movie is an absolute classic.

 

Oooooh that would be so much better than just a black/teal repaint.

 

Hopefully either 1 or 4 mainly 4 cause that is cool to have a new Dinobot done.

 

One thing I'll say about a potential Animated Prowl....I'd rather have him at the Voyager pricepoint and get the full updated Samurai Prowl with the side-car armor.

 

That would be nice, but I feel like they will do him now has a deluxe then later on rerelease him with the side car armor as a voyager.

 

A legacy Animated Prowl would be a solid mold if done right for a shit ton of bikeformer characters imo.

 

Honestly, people shouldn't be getting their hopes up for a G1 Prowl either right now. The ER Datsun mold wasn't bad and actually was a good representation of the character. There are zero reasons for Hasbro to make a new G1 Prowl mold and given that it doesn't have PR in the listing we know it's not a re-release of the ER figure. At this point, we don't know what version of Prowl this is going to be unless one of the in-the-know guys actually has something they can share, but most of them have gone to ground now.

 

That would be best case scenario for us but not for Hasbro lol. They release the regular version first and then the side car samurai version comes after they know they can sell two figures easy that way.

 

Yep could be any version other than the G1 version based on the line up for next year and Hasbro's comments. Hasbro has definitively said Animated characters are coming so Animated Prowl is possible, BWII with Leo Prime is coming next year so BW Prowl/Lio Junior is possible, we are getting IDW with Blurr this year and Tarn next year so it could be an IDW stylized Prowl, RiD01 is finally being recognized with Scourge so there is that version, and then there is Energon Prowl since Hot Shot is coming next year and for all we know they are both Energon version and can powerlink. Basically every other version of Prowl is more likely to happen than a new or redecoed G1 Prowl.

 

ill be honest here i both want and dont want an animated prowl. i want see animated in legacy but at the same time i know for a fact they might make a lot of sacrifices due to the weird design. youd expect for animated they would go for someone simpler like bumblebee or ratchet